Violence in American Schools: A New Perspective

by Edited by Delbert S. Elliott , Beatrix A. Hamburg , Kirk R. Williams

• ISBN13: 9780521594509
• ISBN10: 0521594502
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this volume, experts from a range of disciplines use a variety of perspectives, notably those of public health, criminology, ecology, and developmental psychology, to review the latest research on the causes of youth violence in the nation's schools and communities and on school-based interventions that have prevented or reduced it. They describe and evaluate strategies for the prevention and treatment of violence that go beyond punishment and incarceration. The volume offers a new strategy for the problem of youth violence, arguing that the most effective interventions use a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach and take into account differences in stages of individual development and involvement in overlapping social contexts, families, peer groups, schools and neighborhoods. This book can be used profitably by school teachers and administrators, scholars, policy makers, and those who work with young people at risk, as well as by the general reader who is concerned with current social problems.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii	(2)
List of contributors	ix
I INTRODUCTION	3	(28)
1 Violence in American schools: an overview	3	(28)
DELBERT S. ELLIOTT
BEATRIX HAMBURG
KIRK R. WILLIAMS
II UNDERSTANDING CHILD AND YOUTH VIOLENCE	31	(128)
2 Youth violence is a public health concern	31	(24)
MARGARET A. HAMBURG
3 Social contexts and functions of adolescent violence	55	(39)
JEFFREY FAGAN
DEANNA L. WILKINSON
4 Juvenile aggression at home and at school	94	(33)
ROLF LOEBER
MAGDA STOUTHAMER-LOEBER
5 The interdependence of school violence with neighborhood and family conditions	127	(32)
JOHN H. LAUB
JANET L. LAURITSEN
III SCHOOL-BASED INTERVENTIONS	159	(134)
6 Preventing firearm violence in and around schools	159	(29)
JAMES A. MERCY
MARK L. ROSENBERG
7 Reducing violence through the schools	188	(29)
J. DAVID HAWKINS
DAVID P. FARRINGTON
RICHARD F. CATALANO
8 Evaluations of school-based violence prevention programs	217	(36)
FAITH SAMPLES
LARRY ABER
9 Safe school planning	253	(40)
RONALD D. STEPHENS
IV COMMUNITY-BASED INTERVENTIONS	293	(86)
10 Exposure to urban violence: contamination of the school environment	293	(19)
RAYMOND P. LORION
11 Community policing, schools, and mental health: the challenge of collaboration	312	(36)
STEVEN MARANS
MARK SCHAEFER
12 Tailoring established after-school programs to meet urban realities	348	(31)
MARCIA R. CHAIKEN
V CONCLUSIONS	379	(8)
13 An integrated approach to violence prevention	379	(8)
DELBERT S. ELLIOTT
KIRK R. WILLIAMS
BEATRIX HAMBURG
Author index	387	(12)
Subject index	399